Hero's Fall
by blackkyu
Summary: Sometimes the past can be summed up in an instant, but sometimes, sometimes it really shouldn't. Alba was going to learn this the hard way, or lose the one who made everything possible. AlbaxRoss. Rated M for blood, gore, possible future cursing, and future sexual interaction.


Disclaimer: I own nothing

Outnumbered and surrounded, they were at a loss.

"Shi-taaaan~," Crea panted, allowing his back to fall against Shion's own, "What are we going to do?"

The Anti-Alba group had caught the two off guard, in a wayward place on the outskirts of who knows where. The forest had been leveled in the fight, though both Crea and Shion had worked on redirecting attacks away from the wildlife so that they could escape…not that Shion would ever admit to it.

The Anti-Alba laughed, circling in closer, "give up," one—who looked strangely vague and fuzzy in appearance—shouted, "our Boss is gonna be 'ere any minute!"

"Ya don't stand a chance!"

The other's roared in agreement, grins sharp and feral. Crimson eyes narrowed, disgust and annoyance clear on his face. In the past these weaklings would have been nothing for him, to be reduced to such a state, to be so weak…_but Hero would come_…his fists clenched at his sides, nuh uh, no way, he was _not_ going to be used as some sort of leverage against Alba again! He wasn't baggage! He still had some self-worth!

Taking a breath, Shion whispered, "Crea," the other hummed in response, "we're taking these last few out, and then running for it." At the very least, they could reduce the number of Anti-Alba members and redirect their energy away from the hero.

With a sharp nod the two sprang apart. The Anti-Alba group, not ready for round two, were startled, allowing Shion and Crea to take down a good number before the others started to fight back. It was a daunting task, and, honestly, the Anti-Alba kept them pinned, they couldn't run. By the time the last man feel they hadn't moved an inch from where the battle originally started, and the two could barely stand, covered in blood and bruises, clothes tattered, they sat, panting, in the middle of a pile of bodies.

In a strange sense, Shion felt half exhilarated, and half fearful. He had managed to fight back and defeat all of the opponents before him…but they weren't the last, more were coming, given some time to rest he might be able to make it, but Crea wasn't as used to fighting as he was and…

"Well done."

_Hero._

In retrospect, the tone was completely off, the voice a tad darker, and maybe, just maybe, Shion had missed the annoyance more then he thought, because his guard immediately dropped and he turned to the voice with a slight smile, a retort ready on his lips. Only to be pushed aside with a shout, "Shion!" Crea tossed the two of them down, covering the ex-heros' body with his own as a powerful blast of _something_ skittered over their heads and singed the bodies around them.

"Darn," Not-Alba muttered, "missed."

Not-Alba, because the voice was the same, the _face_ was the same, but the eyes and the tone were _all wrong_. Besides which, Alba would never attack him, not outside sparing anyway, that was Shion's thing.

Another shot of _something_ hit the area in which they lay, burning more of the bodies and sending limps and blood flying.

"Crea?" the ex-hero tentatively asked amongst the spray, lightly shaking his friend when he got no response. The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air, and it was hard to breath, with blurry eyes and shaking hands Shion pushed himself up to his elbows to look down at his friend, head still on his chest. Crea's back was burnt, nasty red welts bubbled up from the flesh, the back of his shirt completely gone.

_Not again. Please. Not again. _

"Well, looks like ones down," Not-Alba declared, happily stomping through the pile of bodies, desecrating his team members corpses without a second thought, "oh, and what do we have here?" he sneered as he got closer, the look so _so _wrong on Alba's face, "aren't you a beauty."

Disgust and fear ran down Shion's spine, his arms wrapping as tightly as they dared around Crea, bringing his friend as close as possible as he glared up at the strange man. Defiance clear in his gaze.

Not-Alba whistled, "haven't seen eyes like that in a _loooong_ time, hey, I got an idea!" the man suddenly declared, looking all to please in himself, "I'm going to destroy this world anyway! I might as well take a prize!"

_Stop talking, just stop._

"And what better than a friend of the 'Great Hero Alba'" the mockery was there, clear as day, and it seriously pissed him off. Only _Shion_ was allowed to mock the hero, no one else.

And while Shion didn't have any mana left, at least, he shouldn't, and everyone within their group knew this, he felt a small spark, a tiny flame flickering to life in reaction to his agitation and fear. Without thinking he flicked his wrist and sent several balls of blue flame hurtling at the man, exploding on impact. The distraction was all Shion needed to push himself to his feet and toss Crea in a portal, healing his friends back as much as he could on the way and hoping that his small glimmer of mana reached as far as he thought.

And, with that, as the smoke cleared the ex-hero was once again left without a drop of mana, the small flame snuffed out with only some lingering smoke as a reminder of its being. As weird as the whole thing was, Shion had no time to mule it over, as Not-Alba suddenly appeared before him, a strike headed for his gut. He was able to avoid it, with a swift jump he got some distance between them and kicked out his foot, sending a corpse flying. It was batted aside with ease, but Shion had plenty more corpses at his disposal, and a part of him found the idea of playing dodgeball with corpses a tad amusing.

It was clear Not-Alba wasn't using his magic for fear of hurting his now claimed _prize_, and, while the mere idea was disgusting, Shion would use that to his advantage.

Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. With a disgruntled groan Alba let his head hit his desk for the twentieth time that day. Much to the annoyance of Ruki, who tossed a can of soda at his head from across the room. "You started up the institute," she oh so helpfully supplied from her place on the sofa, cheerfully sipping juice as she played go fish with her talking hot dog…thing. "But I'm no good with this stuff," he whined, ducking away from another tossed can, "if Ross was here things would go smoother…" he muttered, eyes downcast as he thought of the ex-soldier/hero.

And, strangely enough, it was true. Yes Ross would give him a hard time about it, probably go about stabbing him, punching him, or laying a trap, but the man, despite being a thousand years displaced, was freakishly smart, and caught up on the most recent tech and lingo in a few mere weeks (and it only took that long because he couldn't stand sitting still for long periods of times or he'd make something explode…somehow, Crea was partially at fault, of that Alba was certain). And whenever he thought Alba wasn't looking he'd snatch up a pile of papers and complete it in a matter of minutes, taking another one from the table and slipping food and drink onto the head scientist's desk with the ease of a thief. Which, honestly, now that Alba thought about it, was _not _a skill the Legendary Hero should have.

Nonetheless, despite how useful he was to have around, Ross had been growing distant as of late. Sullen, in a sense, and Alba did not like it. But his duties as the Hero and the head scientist kept him far too busy to be chasing after his ex-soldier. Despite that, it had been almost two months, and he was growing antsy, he didn't even care if the other called him a perverted masochist, Alba missed having the man around, he _missed _the insults and beating…well, alright, not so much the latter, but considering his significant power up and Ross' decrease in strength, they didn't hurt nearly as much as they used too…not that he'd tell the red eyed man that.

"Aaaalba~" Ruki sang next to his ear, causing him to shriek and jump out of his chair falling to the floor in a graceless heap. "If you miss him that much, we could go fetch him for you." The tiny wings atop her head flapped once, as if to accent her statement.

"M...m…miss who?" the Great Hero stammered.

The wicked grin that spread across her face was truly worthy of the 3rd Demon Lord, "Creashion~" she sang, and if his face could get any redder it would implode, of that the youngest demon lord was sure.

"You know, if you asked for him, he wouldn't deny you." And now he was a bubbling mess, and this was so much fun, why on earth hadn't she teased him about this before? Ah, right, she hadn't really known to. But books were very informative things…and she might have read a few things the 2nd hadn't wanted anyone to find, but, what they didn't know couldn't hurt them.

"He's busy," he muttered, after several minutes of sputtering, "I…OW!" the Hero rubbed his head, eyes watering as he stared up at the girl whom gleefully twirled a plastic hammer (it had to have been adjusted somehow, otherwise it wouldn't have hurt him), "what was that for?"

"If you're too busy to go to him, have him come to you," it was a tactic her father used allot, "also, he's too busy to mess with you?" And the question really didn't need to be answered, did it? Ross never gave up an opportunity to mess with him. Although, ever since Alba had acquired so much responsibility, he'd been stepping back…little by little…

He barely dodged the hammer as it was swung at his side.

Before he could retort one of the other random staff members in the facility slammed his door open, "Hero Alba! We've got an issue!"

"Crea," the Hero whispered, staring down at the bandaged body on the bed, breath shallow and covered in sweat, "what happened to you?"

_Where is Ross_?

There was no way the ex-hero would allow his best friend to come to harm. And, despite not having many years of life experience to call his own, the ex-demon lord was still powerful in his own right, with the two together they wouldn't be easy to take down. Not easy, but not impossible.

The wounds on Crea's back had been mostly healed via magic when he'd been found, but the poison in his veins was something none of the medical staff had any experience with, and Alba's magic was only capable of stopping the poison from spreading, not removing it. And there were just so many questions that they had no answer too.

Who attacked Crea?

What was the origin of the poison?

Who partially healed him and then tossed his unconscious body in a river?

_Where was Ross_?

The last question almost threatened to consume his mind. No matter where Alba looked, using far sight and every other trick in the book he'd learned, Ross was _not there_. The others were searching for him, slightly concerned by the ex-soldiers silence. And it took all he had not to panic. _Ross was fine_, _he had to be_. If he wasn't, if he was hurt again…Alba's breath caught, no, no, _no,_ his fists balled up at his sides, trying to breath, to avoid the anxiety, but it only turned to rage, if anyone dared, **dared, **to lay a finger on **his **ex-soldier, on **his **Ross, then, then, the Hero's eyes turning a deep glowing red, **they would pay. **

**AN: **So, to answer some questions before they appear, the reason why Alba and the others are concerned about who healed Crea is because Ross isn't supposed to have any mana left, and they weren't there to see his sudden acquisition of it.

Why was Crea tossed into a river? Well, originally Shion had every intent on sending his friend directly to Alba, but the small amount of mana he had couldn't travers that large of a distance, so he stretched it a far as he could, this is also why he didn't escape himself, because that would have consumed more mana, which he needed to use to heal Crea, just enough so he'd survive until real help came. In other words, it was an accident.

Why do I keep switching up Ross/Shion's name? Because it represents who he is at that time, and who he's with. His childhood friend would, of course, call him by his given name, as that was who he was _before _everything began. For those whom knew and respected him during his hero years (mainly the Demon Lord family) Creashion is what they'll refer to him as. He is the sole reason their family is in existence after all. For those whom knew him as the soldier/Alba's companion, then it's Ross. Of course, some people may change it up here and there just because, but this is the main breakdown.

Why are some of the characters OC? Because I'm accenting the seriousness of the series, well, trying to at least. That…and I'm not all that good with multiple characters, and I might be playing up some of Ross' emotional trauma/unknown history. I mean, we know the jist of his history, we do not know the specifics. Also, Not-Alba doesn't have enough screen time yet to really pin his personality so I'm just making it up, sorry about that.

Anyhow, tell me what you think!


End file.
